fixing our eyes

We live in a culture which trains us to look at the material, whether it be the physical, or the virtual.  We're taught that this is what is "real", and that we are responsible for manipulating this reality for ourselves and, more often than not, for others.  The result is endless hours of speculative thinking, anxious feeling, and manipulative scheming.  We need to get our eyes fixed.

The late clergyman John Stott used to quote this children's poem from the 19th century:  Said the robin to the sparrow, "I should really like to know why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so!"  Said the sparrow to the robin, "Friend, I think that it must be that they have no heavenly Father such as cares for you and me!"  As we consider these birds of the air, we are invited to retrain our gaze, from ourselves and our material, to the Father Who sees and lives in secret and who created us and our stuff.  

This from St. Paul:  We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).  We see what's behind us and everything, The God Who holds us and the universe in His Gaze and Hands.  As we open the eyes of our hearts, and train ourselves to turn to the unseen God, our vision of that which is seen changes: we "see" God at work in all these things, and they lose their luster, and their terror.  

As you and I pray, we do just that, we fix our eyes on the unseen, so that we can see the seen in its proper perspective.